© 2012 Dentsdelion Antiques Tokyo Newsletter - www.dentsdelion.com 1

Vol XII.III May-Jun 2012

Jizô (地蔵) bodhisattva Jizô’ belief is alive and well in Japan. The

numerous representations of this small deity

along roads and near temples and cemeteries

testify to such popularity, but for those who

seldom walk countryside roads, a short trip to

Kôganji temple in Sugamo, North of Tokyo1 will

be convincing enough. There gather the

devotees of the “Arai Kannon” statue2, which

they water (arai) gently before rubbing the part

corresponding to their illness or pain, hoping for

a cure. But the real celebrity of the area,

although more discreet, is the bodhisattva who

gave the name to the street leading to the

temple, Jizô himself.

The cult of Jizô bodhisattva3 came to Japan from

China. Jizô (地蔵) literally means “womb of the

earth” and is believed to be originally a form of

the Indian Earth Goddess Prithvi. In China, the

Dizang (Jizô) is associated with a deity assisting

mortals during their last moment before death

and the Daijô Daishû Jûringyô4 states that Jizô

can take on different forms, that he can travel to

the World of the Dead to rescue sinners, and

that he is especially popular among common

people. In Tang China, Jizô was closely

associated with family and ancestors but, in

Japan, he is more associated with youth and

children and often appears in dreams as a boy or

a young handsome priest.

1 On the Yamanote-line.

2 Sei Kanzeon Bosatsu (聖観世音菩薩).

3 菩薩 (bosatsu) in Japanese. There is many definition of bodhisattva, but basically it is someone on the path of becoming Buddha who

renounces full Buddhahood to help sentient beings in the process of achieving Buddhahood. 4 大乗大集十輪経 (“The ten Kings sutra”) The Chinese monk Genjô-sanzô translated that text in Chinese in the 7

th century and it will come to

Japan during Nara period.

Polychrome wooden sculpture of Jizô bodhisattva. Japan, 16th

c.

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According to legend, the first statue of Jizô was brought to Japan during the reign of emperor Shômu (724-

49) to the Nara temple of Tachibanadera, before being moved to Hôryûji. That corresponds with the fact

that, during the Nara period, sutras about Jizô were regularly copied by Japanese monks, and also matches

records indicating that a statue of Jizô with a date of 747 stood in the lecture hall of Tôdaiji at that time5. In

his earliest known depiction during the Heian period, Jizô is represented as a standing shaved monk,

holding a jeweled ball (hojû) in his left hand, with his right hand palm turned outward. Later versions, from

the Kamakura period onwards, often show him holding a Buddhist priest’s staff (shakujô) in his right hand.

It was during the Heian period that belief in Jizô permeated all levels of society and chronicles of

miraculous tales about him began to be compiled. Most of the tales are stories of people meeting him

during their life, experiencing miracles such as recovering from sickness, finding lost objects, becoming

fertile, being revived from death or saved from the realms of Hell with Jizô’s help.

During the Kamakura period, Jizô was believed

to exist in the six realms of existence6 under

six different names, one for each realm where

he appeared. As a traveler of the six realms, he

is often identified with Emma-ô, the guardian

king of Hell, sometimes taking on his

appearance in order to save fallen sinners. In

the famous tale “How Moritaka of Kamo came

back to life”, Jizô appears as a young boy in

Hell to plead with Emma-ô for the release of

Moritaka from the realm7. For his faculty to

enter the shape of several divinities and for his

merciful ability to save even the greatest

sinners, images of Jizô became immensely

popular during the Kamakura period.

The alleged miraculous powers possessed by

Jizô inspired a genre of chronicles known as

Jizô setsuwa. The oldest of these is the Jizô

bosatsu reigenki, compiled by Jitsuei of

Miidera8 during the 11th century. Most of the others, however, were collected during the Edo period9.

The famous Togenuki Jizô tales related to the Kôganji temple takes place at the beginning of the 18th

century and belong to a set of twenty-one miracles compiled a century later (1822) by Hissai, a Zen monk

from Kyoto, in the Enmei Jizôson inkô riyakuki (延命地蔵尊印行利益記, Record of the benefits in printing images

of the life-prolonging Jizô).

The miracles in question gave the name of Jizô countrywide fame.

5 Recorded in the Tôdaiji yoroku (Chronicles of Tôdaiji, 1134).

6 The 6 realms are the realm of Hell, the realm of Hungry spirits, the realm of Animals, the realm of Constant war, the realm of Humans and the

realm of Gods. 7 Jizô Bosatsu Reigenki (地蔵菩薩霊験記, II.9). Jizô as a savior will also take the form of other Buddha like Dainichi Nyorai (大日如來, the

cosmic Buddha), Amida (阿弥陀) the Buddha of the Pure Land, doctrine of the Jōdo (浄土) sect that flourished from Heian, Bodhisattvas like

Kannon or Fudô, or Japanese deities (kami) like Atago Myôjin (愛宕明神), Kasuga Daimyôjin (春日大明神) or Tateyama Gongen (立山権現). 8 地蔵菩薩霊験記 compiled by 三井寺の実睿.

9 Like Jizô bosatsu rijôki (地蔵菩薩利生記, 1688) and Jizô bosatsu riyakushû (地蔵菩薩利益集, 1691) compiled by Myôdô Jôe ( 浄慧),

Kôshakushû (講釈集, 1693 by Hitsumu) or the previously cited Enmei Jizôson inkô riyakuki (延命印行利益記, 1822 by Hissai).

Polychrome wooden sculpture of Emma-ô, king of Hell. Japan, 17th

c.

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They started with a female member of the Tatsuke family living in the Koishikawa district (now in Bunkyô-

ku), who became ill in the fifth month of Shôtoku (1714). By the seventh month no cure had been found

and it looked as if the end was near. Then, her husband had a dream in which a monk “wearing a black

robe and a saffron-colour surplice” appeared. The monk told him “Carve an image of me measuring one

sun by three bu10, and float it in the river”. At that point the husband woke up, and found by his pillow a

little wooden block on which was carved an image of Jizô, and “since [it] was exactly like what I had seen in

the dream, I put it on an ink pad and proceeded to make talisman prints. With each print I made, I intoned

the Jizô mantra. When I had made ten thousand, I went to the Ryôgoku bridge11 and faced south.” There

the devoted husband released the ten thousand talismans into the river while praying for the recovery of

his spouse.

As it happened, the Hasegawa family of the Fujiwara lineage into which the Tatsuke spouse had been born,

had been stricken by a vengeful curse, and all the women of that branch died before reaching the age of

twenty-five. When her faithful husband returned in the middle of the night from the Sumida river, his wife

was awake and she told him she had the following strange dream: “A man appeared who seemed to be

around twenty-four or five; his forehead wasn’t shaved, and his hair was tied at the top of his head. He

wore an indigo knee-length robe. (…) He stood there slightly forward. Out of nowhere, a monk wearing a

saffron-dyed surplice appeared. Telling the man to leave immediately, he dragged him out from under the

mosquito net. In the next room he struck the man with his staff, and I saw the man crash into the sliding

door before disappearing. This wondrous dream was surely about the Jizô bodhisattvas getting rid of the

angry, vengeful spirit.”

After that night’s events, the sick wife started to recover, and lived a long life thereafter. A while later, the

faithful husband narrated the miracle to a monk named Saijun and handed to him one of the paper

talismans he had printed.

There start the second miracle, the one that will make the Kôganji temple in Sugamo famous until today.

It all started with a broken needle…

A maid of the Mori household living in Edo had

accidently swallowed a piece of a broken

needle she had placed in her mouth while

sewing. The fragment got stuck in her throat

then “worked itself down to her stomach,

which caused a tremendous amount of pain”.

Numerous medicines and talismans were tried,

but nothing worked. Then the Saijun monk,

who still carried the Jizô image, visited the Mori

household. He handed the maid the talisman

and told her to consume it with some water12.

Shortly later, the maid vomited and the printed

piece of paper came out, with the “four-bu

long13 broken needle stuck in the talisman”.

From that miraculous tale came the name of

10

Approximately 3 x 1 cm. 11

両国橋 the oldest of the three main bridges that crossed the Sumida river. Built in 1659 it is just above the confluence with the Kanda river. 12

The practice of ingesting curative talisman is not so common in Japan, but is recorded in different places. It seems to continue nowadays at the Kôganji temple. 13

About 1,5 cm.

Polychrome wooden sculpture of Jizô bodhisattva (detail). Japan, 16th

c.

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Toge-nuki (とげぬき splinter removal) Jizô. Later, in 1729, the Tatsuke family donated the wood-block

used to print the Jizô image to the Kôganji temple, and the area became known as the famous Togenuki

Jizô site.

After the tales of Togenuki Jizô spread, wooden blocks for printing Jizô talismans appeared at other

temples and this resulted in the spread of a Jizô faith-healing cult through Japan, along with the ritual of

scattering paper talismans into waterways.

In his writings, the monk Hissai precisely explained the method, benefit and reason for printing ten

thousand talismans of Jizô and releasing them into water. The idea was for fishes and other sea creatures

that did not ordinarily have any contact with Buddhism to become intimate with the Buddha through Jizô

melting into the water. Saving other beings, especially those who could not ordinarily come into contact

with Buddhism, was thought to bring merit to the persons performing or praying for the ritual, and

reminded them that human beings are just part of a vast cosmos.

From the Edo period, statues of Jizô appeared in every temple, represented alone or in a set of six (roku

Jizô) standing next to each other. Also, as Jizô is supposed to guide people in the real world as well as in the

other, sculptures where often placed at crossroads to help the travelers chose the correct path. As he is

particularly associated with youth and children in Japanese tales, Jizô is most often represented with a

smooth round young face and a hairless head. Due to that link with youth, he has always been particularly

popular among women for easing childbirth or protecting newborns. Jizô-kô meetings were held every

month on the 24th during the Kamakura period and were attended by more women than men. Young

women prayed for successful conception, an easy childbirth and healthy children, while the elderly prayed

for deliverance after death. Today, in some parts of Japan, Jizô-kô are still held, and Jizô Ennichi rituals are

enacted at various temples, among them the Kôganji temple, in Sugamo.

Nowadays Jizô is mostly popular as a

Bodhisattva protecting children, especially

deceased babies and young children who died

before their parents and wander as lost souls.

There is a myth in Japan that dead children

gather near a river called Sanzu, and they pile

up stones to build symbolic stupas in

remembrance of their parents, or to help

them cross to the other shore of the river,

with the help of Jizô. In another legend the

Datsueba (奪衣婆 or 脱衣婆, old Hag of hell)

intervenes. She awaits sinners on the shores

of the river Sanzu in order to strip them and

hang their clothes on a tree whose branches

are tilting over the river like a scale to weigh

their sins. The virtuous can cross the river

Sanzu by a bridge, but sinners have to swim

and many drown. Children who come to the

river Sanzu have not fulfilled their filial duties,

Polychrome wooden sculpture of Datsueba. Japan, 16th

c.

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which is why they have to build piles of pebbles along the riverbed during the days as a tentative to honor

their parents, while demons (oni) destroy them at night… Fortunately in that legend, Jizô appears and

saves the children from the onis. Because of that story, there are many places in Japan designated as Sai

no Kawara14, near beach or rivers, where hundreds of Jizô little statues are erected, many covered with red

children cloths of bibs, but also with children toys and stones pilled everywhere. These are usually the

contributions of parents praying for a deceased child, or wishing to thank Jizô for saving a loved one.

14

賽の河, “the shore with dices”, the dices referring to the little stones piled on top of each other by mourning parents or simple believers.

Jizô alley on the heights of Itsukushima (Miyajima) island. 2009